Four

"Young master, the menu for today is Baked Egg Danish added with your favorite bacon." Tuwaang informed as he lightly placed his introduced dish in front of Kawlan.

The sweet aroma of his breakfast waffed into Kawlans nose and his mouth watered with his appetite soaring. He was satisfied with his food but he was troubled by one thing.

"Is this my only food for breakfast?"

Kawlan whose appetite was a bottomless pit felt that the food wouldn't last him long.

"Young master, I was specifically asked by the Baron to control your meals to make sure its well-balanced."

"...."

As much as Kawlan would like to oppose the thought of a well-balanced food he didn't dare voice out his inner thoughts. He was after all living well due to his parents wealth and so he believes that he has no right to say no. He simply decided to appreciate the food right in front of him which was unfortunately completely cleaned up by him in a matter of minutes.

Tuwaang used the time while Kawlan was eating to tell him his schedule for the day as he grabbed a mini notebook out of his breast pocket and opened it to read.

"Young master, this is your schedule for the day: At 8:00-9:00 you are expected to join a morning assembly. After that you shall have your first class which is Homeroom it will last till 9:00 - 10:30. Then your last morning subject which is Introductory to Basic Mahika will last from 10:30 - 12:00 to be followed with your lunch."

Just hearing his morning schedule already made Kawlan feel tired as regret dawned upon him at his impulse in agreeing to attend this school.

Seeing Kawlan finish his meal Tuwaang closed his mini notebook and placed it back inside his breast pocket.

"I shall lead you to the gymnasium where the assembly will be held."

Kawlan couldn't help but sigh at the familiar modern word.

'Heh, gymnasium. I don't know whether to be glad or not at the fact that the author made this worlds school system based off Earths.'

Kawlan wiped his mouth with a napkin before standing up to follow Tuwaang's lead as they made way towards the school gymnasium.

People with varied colored neckties swarmed their way to enter the huge gymnasium.

The only similarity that the gymnasium in this world and the gymnasium on earth had was its name. The gymnasium in front of Kawlan was like the rest of the school, unnecessarily huge. It's shape was of a dome like structure with an intricate architectural design of serpent dragons in it. He and Tuwaang entered the gymnasium and the inside structure of the so called gymnasium baffled Kawlan.

'This place is closer to a coliseum than a normal school gymnasium.' Kawlan thought.

"Young master, the servants have a designated place and so I shall leave you be." Tuwaang said as he bowed in respect before he walked his way towards the servants designated line.

Kawlan noticed that there was a particular groupings based on grade level and so he smartly moved his way towards the students with similar green colored neckties. The lined students were boisterous and their voices echoed in such a large infrastructure when suddenly they all fell silent when the door opened as some people with amazing auras made their entry.

The entered people were the staff, teachers and the principal of Bakunawa Academy.

Kawlan scrutinized the newly entered people and searched for a person who had quite a big role in the novel. In the novel he was described to have a striking colored hair. His gaze travelled behind the newly entered and finally saw a man who had a striking teal colored hair with black rimmed glasses that couldn't cover-up his look of handsomeness.

'That hair color really is as striking as the novel described that its basically hard to miss him. His hair reminded him of the go signal found in traffic lights. Is it him? Agapito Gatdula? The man who'll be the MC's great teacher. He looks unlike what I envisioned him to be. In the novel he was a hidden bigwig who was a hidden powerhouse. Only when he saw and appreciated the MC's talent did he show his prowess and took the MC as his disciple.'

Kawlan had no way to gauge out the mans true potential and he didn't really want to be acquainted as he was only curious so he immediately shifted his gaze on to the other teachers.

The assembly has officially started and as chosen students of the elite school everyone was well-disciplined and proud. The students were respectfully silent as they gave their rapt attention on to the stage where an old man was standing while speaking out a motivating speech. He was the legendary Makisig Ilao, the principal of the Academy. He was a wielder of a Fire mahika and he was on top of the list of mahika weilders all around the world.

Principal Makisig's voice reverbed all around the gymnasium and the students made sure to take their time to admire the legendary man that they only saw in news papers. However, in the line of students, if you look closely enough you would notice one specific student placed in the middle of the freshmen. He didn't particularly stand out as his back was hunched and his head was lowered .... and upon closer look you would be able to notice his evened breathing and his tightly closed eyes.... indeed the student was sleeping.... and this student was our dearest lazy protagonist, Kawlan.

"Congratulations to you all for succesfully entering our Bakunawa Academy. I'm sure you are all worthy of entering ..... or atleast most of you are..."

Hearing the principals words which also held double meaning confused the students as they all broke out in murmurs.

"Most of us? What does the principal mean?"

"Did someone perhaps enter using a backdoor?"

"What? But this place is Bakunawa! There's no way that they'll accept that!"

"But the principal just said----"

"Now, now, everyone stay silent. My apologies, please don't mind what I just said and treat it as some old man spouting nonsense."

"....."

There was no way that they can do that since that old man was nothing more but THE Makisig Ilao.

Once again murmurs broke out between the students and this time their murmurs awoke a certain sleeping man.

Kawlan was already adept in pretending to be attentive and so he raised his head as his face looked clear as if he really was not in deep sleep just a few seconds ago. Kawlan heightened his ears and listened to the murmurs and he vaguely understood why everyone was in a ruckus.

'Backdoor?'

Kawlan fell silent as he quietly pondered.

'Isn't that me?'

Indeed it was. Kawlan had no idea just how his father got this school to accept him and now he fully understood.

'I wonder just what it took for them to agree?'

It took awhile for the students to quieten and Kawlan did his best to lay low because he never wanted to spark attention, not that he was worthy of one.

The old man on stage then proceeded to speak. "As everyone is aware this school year the choosing of the schools next royals will commence."

Hearing the principals words the students all yelled in glee and excitement.

Royalty System is a school system found in each schools within this world. For every five years a Tournament between schools takes place. Each school is designated to have five Royal Students namely a: King, Queen, Ace, Jack and Joker. These five Royal Title Holders are chosen students who are designated by the schools through certain screenings. These Royal Title Holders will serve as the schools representatives and will battle in an inter-school tournament which is called 'The Battle of the Royals.' The Royal students performance in the tournament will determine their corresponding schools rankings in the official 'Academia Rankings'. The higher the ranking the more prestigious the school will be. The schools will also be allocated with certain benefits and rewards given by the government depending on their schools ranking.

"I wonder who will be our school Royals? For all we know maybe I'll become one!" One young man wishfully said to his friend.

"In your dreams! Do you even have the abilities to be a royal?! You have to be the best of the best! You could barely control a rock using your earth mahika yet you still have the guts to say that you could possibly become a royal title holder?" The young man's friend said as he stared at him like he was the most foolish man he has ever known,

"Hey! I can dream can't I?!"

"Pssh! You can only dream if you have the ability to fulfill it! Do you even have any idea who the people in our batches are? "

"What do you mean? "

"First off we have our Queen Mahalia!"

"Queen? But she has yet to be designated?" The young man curiously questioned.

"That doesn't matter! It's THE Mahalia Niyebe Salawon you know?! A genius prodigy of an ice mahika! She's the only daughter of Viscount Salawon who was a royal who ranked in second at the Battle of Royals years ago! She's basically destined to be the queen PLUS she's a drop dead beauty!"

"What does beauty have anything to do with this?" The young man muttered in distaste.

"You wouldn't be saying that once you lay your eyes on her."

"Pssh! As if!" He denied. The young mans friend shook his head as if saying that his friend was hopeless. He roamed his eyes and to look for the beauty he just mentioned for he wished to see his friend eat his own words. His eyes then suddenly stopped at a woman's bright visage.

"Look that's her! That's Queen Mahalia!" The young mans friend excitedly said as he tugged at his friend towards a certain direction.

Kawlan has long been eavesdropping on the males discussion as he grew interested, this was even more so when he heard them speak of the female leads name. He expertly followed the mans gaze, wanting to see this well-known female lead that he had read in the novel. His vision shook at the sight of a strikingly familiar female.

"That lady with blonde hair is our dearest Queen Mahalia!"

'.... Just what are the odds?....'

It was today that Kawlan felt the plots power.

'I have just decided to never cross paths with the novel characters, I never expected to bump into one so early .....and it was the female lead at that!'

He drew back his sight and swallowed back a depressive sigh at the thought that the world really was against him.

"Holy Mahika! She's gorgeous!" the young man yelped in amazement.

"I told you so!"

"Now I'm really motivated! Imagine if I become a Royal I could hang out with such a beauty!"

"Bah! You're still hoping?! Let me tell you....Queen Mahalia is just the first one but there are plenty more candidates! There's Tanum Dalisay who is the third son of the Luntian Earl Noblehouse, it's rumored that there's a possibly of him being chosen as the Ace Title Holder!"

"Ace? Why not the King's?"

"Well.....uhm... Tanum may be strong but he's a bit lacking in the brain department."

"So he's stupid?"

"Stupid but strong. He can defeat you in a matter of seconds! For the Jack position, there is Melchor Diwa of the Macuja Baron Noblehouse, Makisig Isog of the Catapang Marquess Noblehouse, Dolores Toriz of the Sumulong Baron Noblehouse.... and many more! The people I just mentioned are just the front runners."

"Fine! Then can't I just be the joker?!"

"That is also impossible!"

"What now?! Is it another child of some high ranking noble house?!"

"Yes and there's not just one! There are atleast 13 candidates for the joker position and let me just tell you this ..... you aren't their opponent!"

"That's mean! Aren't you supposed to be my friend?! Shouldn't you support me in my endeavor to attain my dreams?!"

" Attain your dreams? You can only attain it if you have the ability to do so and you don't. It's because I'm your friend that I'm telling you this, you really don't stand a chance against those geniuses.... they're basically monsters."

The young mans parade was rained on by none other than his friend. He looked taken backed at his friends frankness yet at the time he understood that what his friend was saying was the hard truth.

"At this point you'll just wonder who the King would be. In this school that's filled with talent just who would rise to be the best."

"Indeed."

Kawlan listened at their continued conversation and he could hear familiar names from the novel.

In his memory the Royal Title Holders was already established.

Queen Title Holder - Queen Mahalia Niyebe Salawon

Ace Title Holder - Ace Tanum Dalisay Luntian

Jack Title Holder - Jack Makisig Isog Catapang

Joker Title Holder - Joker Darna Apo Amihan

and Finally

King Title Holder - King Dakila Adlaw'ng Kahayagan

Remembering the struggles and challenges that the protagonist and his squad has to undergo due to the novel plot made Kawlan strengthened his decision in avoiding them.

He really didn't wish to enter in some school tournament only to end up in a dangerous battle against some unknown evil organization that wishes to destroy the world.

'Saving the world sounds like a major headache so I'll leave that to the protagonists.'